BIRMINGHAM (TAB) — The bond for Richard Shahan, accused of murdering his wife in July 2013, is set at $100,000. During an afternoon hearing Jan. 16, Jefferson County District Judge Sheldon Watkins decided on the bond amount under the conditions that Shahan remain on house arrest and submit to electronic monitoring, if he makes bond. Jefferson County District attorneys Laura Poston and Leigh Gwathney are prosecuting the case, al.com reported. Gwathney said information from more than 3,000 emails on computers Shahan used indicated that he was planning to leave the United States and never return. According to al.com, he was heading to Kazakhstan via Germany and planned to move to the United Kingdom to “begin a new life with his boyfriend … who he intended to marry,” Gwathney said. Shahan’s attorneys Wendell Sheffield and John Lentine had requested that Shahan’s possessions that were seized at the Nashville International Airport on Jan. 1 during Shahan’s arrest be returned. The items seized included luggage, $27,000 in U.S. and foreign currency, a phone and various hard drives and thumb drives, al.com reported. Watkins ruled that the U.S. currency would be returned to Shahan but the other money would not be turned over. Karen Louise Shahan’s body was discovered July 23 inside the family’s Homewood home. According to the affidavit filed Jan. 10 she was stabbed to death with an “unknown object.” Richard Shahan was serving as the children and families pastor at First Baptist Church, Birmingham, at the time.
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State Baptist newspaper serving Baptists in Alabama, providing information, inspiration and interpretation as well as challenging readers to serve and find opportunities for ministry that further the kingdom of God.